So I was just wondering... Have you people ever tried to explain the story to friends or family like the title says.
When I try to tell people about it I start with the Assassin's and Templars, Modern Day and than the Isu. Most of the time it's short explanation like in 15 minutes I notice when I tell people in their mid 30's they are more interested in the Isu than the people under the age of 20.
But that is my expierence and they understand why I like it and take a interest.
Tell me your expierence please:)

LoyalACFan

10-08-2016, 09:12 PM

Not really. The only person in my family who's into video games is my brother, and he's already played AC. I try not to blather on about game lore to people who don't game, because I know a guy who's really, really annoying in that respect; literally every single time I see the fella he wants to talk to me about Halo, despite me telling him numerous times I don't play it. Every time it's like he thinks he can talk me into liking it with another long-winded synopsis of the backstory, character origins, world lore, ugh, zzzzzzzz.... :nonchalance: So I try not to be "that guy."

Namikaze_17

10-08-2016, 09:27 PM

Anytime I try to explain any type of lore or story, I try to simplify it as much as possible.

"This machine makes him go back in time"

"Those dudes with the Cross are bad"

If they're interested, I explain a bit further; but not too much to the point that it confuses them and wonder why I like this weird ****.

Farlander1991

10-08-2016, 09:34 PM

This will be a shameless self-plug, but whenever somebody asks me to explain the overall concept of AC, I just link them to the series fan-trailer I did back in 2011 for one of the courses at VFS Game Design school, and they instantly get really intrigued.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWgSOFeduKM

SixKeys

10-08-2016, 10:20 PM

"Yeah, I play this series called Assassin's Creed. It's such a beautiful game where you explore these historical locations, you can go anywhere and do anything, you can climb these old buildings...."
-Does it have a story?
-Yeah, it does, but....
-So what's it about?
-Well, you're an assassin. Your goal is to kill people.
-Oh. That sounds violent.
-Yeah, but they're good assassins. Well, I mean, not good, exactly, but it's actually an interesting story about moral greyness. You see, the evil guys....well, not evil, exactly, but more evil than the assassins....
-The ones who kill people?
-Yes! I mean no! The evil guys are Templars. They kill people too and they're worse. See, Templars were these Christian soldiers who were supposed to have disappeared after the Crusades like 900 years ago, but actually they went underground and started plotting world domination. And it's like they run the world we live in today and control our televisions and pharmacies and they have these mind control satell-- you know what, just forget that last part, that's not important. But you know how the Mayans once predicted the world was gonna end in 2012? Well, that obviously didn't happen in real life, but the games make you pretend that's because the assassins stopped it and LOOK IT'S ACTUALLY REALLY CLEVER OKAY."

joshoolhorst

10-08-2016, 10:27 PM

"Yeah, I play this series called Assassin's Creed. It's such a beautiful game where you explore these historical locations, you can go anywhere and do anything, you can climb these old buildings...."
-Does it have a story?
-Yeah, it does, but....
-So what's it about?
-Well, you're an assassin. Your goal is to kill people.
-Oh. That sounds violent.
-Yeah, but they're good assassins. Well, I mean, not good, exactly, but it's actually an interesting story about moral greyness. You see, the evil guys....well, not evil, exactly, but more evil than the assassins....
-The ones who kill people?
-Yes! I mean no! The evil guys are Templars. They kill people too and they're worse. See, Templars were these Christian soldiers who were supposed to have disappeared after the Crusades like 900 years ago, but actually they went underground and started plotting world domination. And it's like they run the world we live in today and control our televisions and pharmacies and they have these mind control satell-- you know what, just forget that last part, that's not important. But you know how the Mayans once predicted the world was gonna end in 2012? Well, that obviously didn't happen in real life, but the games make you pretend that's because the assassins stopped it and LOOK IT'S ACTUALLY REALLY CLEVER OKAY."

Pretty much yeah XD

Farlander1991

10-08-2016, 10:51 PM

"Yeah, I play this series called Assassin's Creed. It's such a beautiful game where you explore these historical locations, you can go anywhere and do anything, you can climb these old buildings...."
-Does it have a story?
-Yeah, it does, but....
-So what's it about?
-Well, you're an assassin. Your goal is to kill people.
-Oh. That sounds violent.
-Yeah, but they're good assassins. Well, I mean, not good, exactly, but it's actually an interesting story about moral greyness. You see, the evil guys....well, not evil, exactly, but more evil than the assassins....
-The ones who kill people?
-Yes! I mean no! The evil guys are Templars. They kill people too and they're worse. See, Templars were these Christian soldiers who were supposed to have disappeared after the Crusades like 900 years ago, but actually they went underground and started plotting world domination. And it's like they run the world we live in today and control our televisions and pharmacies and they have these mind control satell-- you know what, just forget that last part, that's not important. But you know how the Mayans once predicted the world was gonna end in 2012? Well, that obviously didn't happen in real life, but the games make you pretend that's because the assassins stopped it and LOOK IT'S ACTUALLY REALLY CLEVER OKAY."

This is exactly the reason why I use the trailer :p But also, before I've done that (and sometimes after as well), instead of trying to explain the whole concept, I'd just show some of the emotional or interesting scenes. Like Ezio's speech at Bonfire of the Vanities. Or Desmond's and Warren's talk about a certain bestseller. Or some of the white room conversations.

What happens when you do it like that is that people get interested by what they see, and start asking questions in an already interested state rather than us trying to create a cohesive picture from the get go while being interrupted by their questions before we can finish the description.

But really I hope that the AC movie will be good enough to just point towards it so people would be able to experience what AC is in a more traditional way before getting into the games.

ze_topazio

10-08-2016, 11:03 PM

No, not really, but when I bought AC1 and arrived at home, my sister was around so I was like: "look I bought a new game, it's about assassinating people", and she was like: "Like almost all games", and I was like: "lol, pretty much, but this one happens in 1191 in Jerusalem", and that's the only time I ever tried to explain AC to anyone.

SixKeys

10-08-2016, 11:55 PM

This is exactly the reason why I use the trailer :p But also, before I've done that (and sometimes after as well), instead of trying to explain the whole concept, I'd just show some of the emotional or interesting scenes. Like Ezio's speech at Bonfire of the Vanities. Or Desmond's and Warren's talk about a certain bestseller. Or some of the white room conversations.

What happens when you do it like that is that people get interested by what they see, and start asking questions in an already interested state rather than us trying to create a cohesive picture from the get go while being interrupted by their questions before we can finish the description.

But really I hope that the AC movie will be good enough to just point towards it so people would be able to experience what AC is in a more traditional way before getting into the games.

I tried to show someone the AC3 intro where William sums up the story show far. Realized while watching it that while it looks good, it really doesn't make the story any less confusing for the uninitiated.

My main problem is that I can only show scenes to people who understand English well enough since AC games generally don't have subtitles in Finnish. :( AC3 is the only one that did, oddly enough.

cawatrooper9

10-10-2016, 03:26 PM

I tried to explain it to my best friend Tony. It took about 20 minutes to just get the basics, and even then I think he was very confused. There was a ton of lore, and as crazy as the TWCB stuff seems in the game, imagine just hearing about it.

By the way, that conversation took place in January of 2010- so only AC1 and 2 were out. I imagine it would even be much more difficult now.